the new year

Happy 2012 everyone! How did you spend your midnight ringing in the New Year? I'll admit, mine was a tad blurry and my nude heels are now completely ruined, but it was a great night overall! The Boy and I decided to go "all out" for the first time (since we usually just do dinners and watch the ball drop on the TV) and went to Toronto with some friends. We watched some hockey at the hotel where someone came up with the brilliant but not-so-brilliant idea of taking a shot any time someone scored a goal (that might have been me), playing with a lot of glow sticks, and wandering up and down the stairs of a three-floor club with pretty good music before a kiss or two at midnight. 

About to ring in the new year!

Getting ready, getting set ...

And GO! With my glow sticks leftover from a science experiment :D

Wearing a H&M top, Forever 21 skirt, and heels (RIP) from Spring :)

Now it's four days later and I'm thinking more about the 'long-term goals' (my alternate term for 'resolutions') for this year. It's broken down into three categories: goals for myself, goals for others, and goals for the future.

take better care of myself - workout like this if I find myself short for time instead of setting myself up for failure with 'workout five times a week'; make my space less cluttered (just as I wrote this I noticed three leftover hot cocoa mugs and went to wash them haha) and more of an organized chaos (keep a jar full of memories); eating a tad healthier + sleeping longer = less illness (YAY!); and, of course, the one I've had on my list for years: stop biting picking at your nails, woman.

stay in touch with those I care about - instead of being a hermit as soon as school comes, I want to take the time to make random plans like coffee dates, hikes, skating nights, and playing Just Dance 'til our limbs wear down rather than just catching up with someone around the holidays or birthdays, even if it is great that it feels like no time has passed at all when I do spend time with someone after months. And of course, meet those bloggers I've been wanting to meet this year!

keep the future in mind, but live in the present - Save my money and read library books instead; plan for those amazing trips I want to take in the future like British Columbia, Europe, the Philippines, but also keep in mind my future car, home, and family; find the less expensive but still thoroughly enjoyable things to do in my city rather than splurging on one-day things.

The reason why I don't want to call them 'new year' resolutions is because these are things I have in my mind all the time; it just feels like the perfect time to write them down and solidify them as goals at the beginning of the year. Here's hoping I can keep them going all-year round and beyond, and let's hope I don't run into John Cusack trying to save the world in the meantime.

What are your 'long-term goals'?

And how is your 2012 so far?

Hope you're having an amazing day :)

the best of 2011

The year of 2011 was definitely full of those "BIG" moments for me. I traveled to B.C. to see my sister getting married, I traveled to Europe for a month in August, and was accepted into teacher's college, my next step towards my hopefully full-time career. But of course, there were also those little moments that made the transitions between those big milestones memorable and kept me smiling in a year plagued by illness (food poisoning and being ill for a month? Yeah, definitely not planning on doing those again anytime soon). 

Around this time last year I posted my 'year of 2010' review, and it's honestly amazing that two of my 'small' dreams (getting into teacher's college and Europe) came true. My dreams for next year? Go to Vancouver again to see my new niece or nephew and my family, hopefully graduating successfully from teacher's college and finding a job (pretty please?) and keep up the happiness with me and The Boy and my friends and family. As for my resolutions? That's for next post ;) 

What was your most memorable part of 2011?

What are you looking forward to next year?

And everyone wish the lovely Kathy at vodka and soda a Happy Birthday! :)
Now, it's time for a recap - backwards!

DECEMBER has tugged at my heartstrings; I had to say bye to my amazing grade 8 classroom, but am finally on a deserved two-week break and I've already gotten to catch up with my closest friends in the form of an Ugly Christmas Party (we're rocking 'em above) and getting to spend more time with The Boy and my family in the form of Christmas dinners and movie nights. I honestly don't want to go back to classes. And we finally got snow, whoopah!

And November-January are found under the cut! :)

Read more »

happy new year!

OK, so the start of the new year was four days ago (or five, depending on time zone?) but better late than never, righto? Thanks for all the Happy New Year wishes! The past few days have been spent recovering from muscle and body pains; I fear that 2011 has brought about an early stage of old age or something. I blame it on spending the evening of New Year's Day dancing my heart out with my closest friends to Just Dance 2 on the Wii, for sure :)

I hope you all had a great time ringing in 2011, whether it was lowkey or extravagant. Mine was spent with a co-chef by my side (aka The Boy) plus a couple coming over to have dinner, whip our hair, laugh a lot, and then taking care of The Boy who didn't feel so well in the first few hours of the new year, to put it vaguely hehe. Either way, it was a great night and now I'm spending the first few days of 2011 ... trying to figure out what I'm going to do the rest of the year. But for now, a little peek in my night:

 The Boy and I, an excellent co-chef who chopped all the onions for me :)

Bruschetta, anyone?

Dinner was served in the form of roasted potatoes and pork tenderloin stuffed with feta and bruschetta plus a salad (mmm), and then there's me and my friend whipping our hair back and forth! I look like a have a Chewbecca head on me.

Two unintentional "resolutions", though I prefer to call them long-term goals, are to make videos of memories instead of just taking pictures, and to have a dream diary. I have this tendency to read in bed for about 10 minutes, which makes my bed all nice and toasty for when I settle down to actually sleep. But when I do this, I tend to have the most vivid and strangest dreams ever - so why not record 'em! This post is getting more random by the second.

My first few weeks of January will probably be spent relaxing - catching up with friends even though the whole work/school shuffle is starting up again - and trying to find some kind of job. Whether it's seriously starting up a web design/graphic design kind of business, or venturing into my city screaming, "Pleeeeease hire me!" (okay, I probably won't stoop so low to do that ... hopefully). Thankfully, I have plenty of hobbies to pass the time and actually having some me time for once is refreshing. But soon, I know I'll have to spruce up my resume and find places to apply to. 

For now, I hope you've all had a first good few days of 2011. 

Let me know how you celebrated, if you have any "long-term goals", and how you're spending this first month of the year!

a new decade & a piece of me!

Happy New Year!

It's 2010 -- are you going to pronounce it two thousand and ten or twenty-ten? I'm trying to figure out this lingo for the 2000s and it's boggling my mind. Nevertheless, it's a new decade, a time for 'fresh starts' and all that jazz. Thanks for all of your 'happy new year!' wishes in the last post ... let's hope it will be full of happiness, health, and ... hot dogs (alliteration fail). Before I do a small recap on my New Year's festivities, I wanted to take part in a 'Piece of Me', a little thing to do at the start of the month by Notes from the Toothfairy. If you want to take part, just go to her blog!

This month....

I like: that there are so many birthdays (even though that means lots of gift-finding!), that I might finally go see Avatar, and that my new computer speakers from The Boy no longer pick up an oldies' radio station.

I don't like: that it's officially the start of my last term in uni, EVER. Might seem exciting, but in reality it scares the bejeesus outta me.

I want you to know: that I'm kind of glad to be graduating in a few months, but I'm terrified about my teacher's college acceptances (or lack thereof).

I've planned: to exercise, exercise, exercise ... and try to stay on top of schoolwork, while also consistently blogging so I don't leave long gaps of silence here.

I want to say to someone special: I'm so grateful for you and want to thank you for accepting my weirdness. And thank you to anyone who happens to vote for me here ... I'm happy you enjoy my newb ways.

It feels like things are already 'back to business' - I start classes in two days, and the holiday festivities are officially over. But that doesn't stop me from recapping my New Years'! It was a ton of fun, plus pretty low-key despite invites to go elsewhere. Me and The Boy decided to just go out for dinner and celebrate at home, and afterward my close friend and her boyfriend came over and we talked, drank some more champagne, and watched Stardust until 4 in the morning. Good times :) Warning: the flash here makes me look albino. I promise I'm a few shades darker, haha.

1) Our feast at the restaurant -- and The Boy attempting to stab me with a fork. Egad! The food was so delicious, and I tried goat cheese for the first time!
2) There were a bunch of balloons tied to tables and booths there, and The Boy asked if I wanted a balloon. We stealthily (is that a word? is now!) took them out of the restaurant and took a photoshoot with them while waiting for the bus (free transportation on New Years', woop). When we got onto the bus the bus driver said, "The buses are free tonight ... you didn't have to get me anything!" To which I replied like a five-year old, "These balloons are mine."
3) Happy New Year! Our kiss at midnight before we popped open the champagne :) We kept making toasts that night that were so sentimental, and I loved 'em.
4) Only one of the balloons had helium in it, and after midnight we decided to let it go from his rooftop. At first we thought it was just going to fall straight down but then it just wizzed out of the sky -- if it had a voice, I could picture it going weeeee! as it zoomed away.
5) My close friend and I :) We took this before Stardust and then took a whole bunch of pics afterward on her camera that make me smile. So glad I got to see her :)

How was your New Year's?

Are you excited for 2010?

Or could you really just not care?

Either way: here's to more coffee, more blogging, more craziness, and more good times ahead!


Hope you all have a great weekend!

the last post of this decade...

I make it sound so ominous, don't I? I still remember, a decade ago, when the clock hit midnight and a bunch of people around the world sighed a sigh of relief that the computers didn't go haywire. That's one thing I find interesting about these "end of the world" things that are supposed to happen at midnight -- what about time zones, people? Which midnight will this happen on?

Speaking of time zones, several people are already in 2010! Hello, people in the futue year! Meanwhile, it's still the afternoon of the last day of 2009. One in which I'll be exercising (oy vey), getting ready, getting dressed up, and having fun with The Boy and anyone else ... it's expected to be a pretty random night, but altogether this has been a pretty random year!

This year I cross-dressed as a man for a Shakespeare assignment, celebrated my 21st birthday, made really great friendships, applied to teacher's college, grew in happiness with The Boy, and have missed my sister and niece so much. I also never expected to make such amazing blogger friends with this blog. It was created mostly just to keep in touch with my sister, especially now that she's moved to Vancouver, and yet it grew and grew and I'm so thankful for all of you :)

Soooo: HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

I hope 2010 is amazing!

My resolution goal (resolutions always seem to be broken) is to be happy ... and lose 3lbs. That's all. (Ahh, Mean Girls reference right there, by the way). What are your goals/wishes for the upcoming year/decade?

And here's a picture from my trip yesterday to Toronto to see some friends!

I believe it's one of my first non-crouching pictures. I am proud.

And maybe this weekend I'll have a 2009 recap/2010 survey type thing. For now, have a happy new year, be safe, drink some bubbly if you'd like, and don't fret about getting a kiss at midnight .. just be happy!

Love you all :)